Драконы в легендариуме Толкина

Race from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium

J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle earth legendarium features dragons based on those of European legend, but going beyond them in having personalities of their own, such as the wily Smaug, who has features of both Fafnir and the Beowulf dragon. Dragons appear in the early stories of The Book of Lost Tales, including the mechanical war dragons of The Fall of Gondolin. Tolkien went on to create Smaug, a powerful and terrifying adversary, in The Hobbit; dragons are only mentioned in passing in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's conception of the dragon has been adopted both in games loosely based on his Middle earth writings, and by other fantasy authors. Several taxa have been named after Tolkien's dragons, including both extinct and living species. Several taxa, including girdled lizards, shield bugs, and ants, carry the name Smaug.

[[File:Hylestad I, right Fafnir and Sigurd. jpg|thumb|upright|Sigurd kills the dragon Fafnir. Wood carving in Hylestad Stave Church, 12th–13th century. Smaug resembles Fafnir in several respects. As well as "dragon", Tolkien called them "drake" (from Old English draca, in turn from Latin draco and Greek δράκων), and "worm" (from Old English wyrm, "serpent", "dragon"). Tolkien named four dragons in his Middle earth writings. Like the Old Norse dragon Fafnir, they are able to speak, and can be subtle of speech. In the earliest drafts of "The Fall of Gondolin", the Lost Tale that is the basis for The Silmarillion, the Dark Lord Morgoth (here called Melkor) sends mechanical war machines in the form of dragons against the city; some serve as transport for Orcs. These do not appear in the published Silmarillion, edited by Christopher Tolkien, in which real dragons attack the city. As in the later conception of the dragons in the Legendarium, the winged dragons had not yet been devised by Morgoth at the time of the Fall of Gondolin. The first winged dragons appeared at the same time as Ancalagon the Black.

In Tolkien's works, dragons are quadrupedal, and may be either flightless, like Glaurung, or winged, like Smaug. Winged dragons first appeared during the War of Wrath, the battle that ended the First Age. Some dragons, known as "Fire drakes" ("Urulóki" in Quenya), are capable of breathing fire. It is not entirely clear whether the "Urulóki" were only the first dragons such as Glaurung that could breathe fire but were wingless, or to any dragon that could breathe fire, and thus include Smaug. In Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien mentions that Dáin I, King of the Dwarves, and his son Frór were killed by a "Cold drake", prompting their people to leave the Grey Mountains. It is commonly assumed that this indicates a dragon which could not breathe fire. Dragon fire (even that of Ancalagon the Black) is described as not being hot enough to melt the One Ring; however, four of the Dwarven Rings are consumed by Dragon fire. All Tolkien's dragons share a love of treasure (especially gold), subtle intelligence, immense cunning, great physical strength, and a hypnotic power called "dragon spell". They are extremely powerful and dangerous but mature very slowly. Because of this, Melkor's first attempts to use them against his enemies failed, as they were not yet powerful enough to be useful in battle.

Glaurung, first introduced in The Silmarillion, is described as the Father of Dragons in Tolkien's legendarium, and the first of the Urulóki, the Fire drakes of Angband. He is a main antagonist in The Children of Húrin, in which he sets in motion events that bring about the protagonist Túrin Turambar's eventual suicide before being slain by him. Glaurung is shown to use his ability to control and enslave Men using his mind to wipe the memory of Túrin's sister Nienor, though it was restored after Glaurung had perished. He is described as having four legs and the ability to breathe fire, but no wings.